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| November 17, 2001 | Saturday | Ramazan 1, 1422 |
Youthful China down Japan
FUKUOKA (Japan), Nov 16: Asian champions China outgunned Japan to chill a partisan crowd in a top-of-the-table battle for a third straight win in the World Grand Champions Cup women’s volleyball tournament here on Friday.
The young Chinese spikers, the winners over Sydney Olympic silver medallists Russia and this year’s Grand Prix winners the United States, continued their winning streak with a 25-21, 25-21, 25-21 victory.
Earier in the day, the United States and Olympic bronze medallists Brazil got back to their winning ways after losing their first two matches.
The Americans, who defeated all-conquering Cuba to represent the North American continent, overcame a lacklustre first set to beat defending champions Russia 18-25, 25-22, 25-20, 29-27.
Brazil rallied to a straightforward 25-21, 25-14, 25-15 victory over Asian silver medallists South Korea, who missed Kim Guy-Hyun and Lee Yun-Hui due to injuries.
“My players served well and blocked well today. We didn’t make many easy errors and we played our game as we took the lead from the beginning. I’m very happy because we’ve had some tough matches against Korea,” Brazilian coach Marco Aurelio Motta said.
China stood with a 3-0 win-loss record ahead of Japan with 2-1 in the six-team round robin competition, which carries a top prize of 300,000 dollars. The other four teams have 1-2 records.
The Chinese lost to Japan twice this year, but they were never in danger, although they allowed the Japanese, roared on by the local crowd, to take a several point lead in the third set.
“We were never able to get into our rhythm. Everybody thought about our biggest Asian rivals too much and all of us were a bit nervous. We should not do the same mistake the following two days,” said Ai Otomo, 19.
Defending champions Russia, who crashed to Asian champions China on the first day, took control in the first set with 21-year-old Ekaterina Gamova showing some iron-fenced blocking and back-court attacks.
But Danielle Scott and Sarah Noriega led the American team to turn the wave round in the following sets with Scott winning a total of 20 points, 14 of them by her attacks.
Russian ace spiker Evguenia Artamonova saved the European champi